Seeing Baye leave, Lin Lei breathed a sigh of relief.
"Compared to a Perfection expert, I'm afraid I'd need both a material defense Highgod artifact and a soul defense Highgod artifact just to stay alive." Lin Lei marveled at Baye's offensive power. That binding force was strong enough to distort space — it even exceeded Reisijing's 'Amethyst Space.'
When facing a Perfection expert, only someone like Bei Bei, whose material and soul defenses were both pushed to their absolute limits, could hope to survive.
"No — even with my strong defenses... I'm afraid this Baye could probably still banish me into spatial turbulence." The more Lin Lei thought about it, the more terrifying Perfection seemed. He had previously witnessed many experts who had fused five profundities, and he had assumed Perfection would simply be impressive but not incomprehensibly different.
But now, having seen it firsthand, Lin Lei realized.
A Perfection expert could casually distort space and tear heaven and earth apart with a mere wave of a hand. The leap from fusing five profundities to Perfection was nothing short of a fundamental, caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation.
"That Baye isn't coming back, is he?" A deep voice spoke up.
Lin Lei turned to look. It was the big man Lei Hong who had spoken. Bei Bei, looking rather disheveled, quickly chimed in, "Of course he won't come back! He's a Perfection expert — now that he's left, why would he turn back? And even if he did, I wouldn't be afraid of him." The moment Bei Bei said this, Lin Lei, Reisijing, and Lei Hong all turned to stare at him.
"You wouldn't be afraid?" Reisijing's tone dripped with disbelief.
Reisijing himself was actually afraid too. If Baye went berserk and threw caution to the wind, he could easily kill Reisijing, Lei Hong, and Lin Lei, then banish Bei Bei into spatial turbulence. The price for doing so would be facing the Amethyst Highgod's pursuit — Baye would be forced to hide in the material planes forever.
Reisijing was afraid. Lin Lei and Lei Hong felt the same deep down. Facing Baye, they had all felt that helpless inability to resist.
But Bei Bei — he wasn't afraid?
Under their collective stare, Bei Bei offered an awkward grin. "Alright, fine, I'll be honest. Of course I was a little scared. In front of that Baye, I felt like I could only take hits with absolutely no ability to fight back. That eerie melody of his knocked me unconscious. Anyway, he's gone now, and it's all over. Let's just hope I never see that Baye again. Unless, that is, I reach Grandpa's level of strength."
Lin Lei couldn't help but laugh at that, then turned to look at Reisijing. He really had to thank Reisijing this time.
"Good thing you had the Highgod's authority to back you up, Reisijing," Lin Lei said with a grateful laugh.
"Hmph, that's all just talk. By the time my mother actually arrived, Baye would have fled long ago." Reisijing curled his lip. "Fortunately, Baye isn't the type to go crazy over Okarower."
Lin Lei nodded slightly in agreement.
If Okarower and Baye had been as close as Lin Lei and Bei Bei, Baye might truly have gone on a rampage regardless of the consequences. Fortunately, their relationship hadn't reached that level.
"Reisijing, this Highgod power." Only now did Lin Lei remember the vial of Highgod power still in his hand.
Heavens — an entire vial! What a terrifying fortune.
"Reisijing, you only took out this vial of Highgod power earlier to intimidate Baye and make him realize he couldn't kill Bei Bei. Now that it's over, take it back." Lin Lei held the purple crystal vial out to Reisijing. It wasn't that Lin Lei didn't want the Highgod power.
If it had been just one or two drops, Lin Lei would have accepted it gladly.
But an entire vial...
This was far too valuable. Holding it, Lin Lei felt his hands burn. He hadn't contributed all that much alongside Reisijing, yet here he was holding such a vial of Highgod power. There was a saying about not accepting gifts without merit — receiving such a treasure without having earned it left him feeling deeply uneasy.
"Hm?" Bei Bei was taken aback.
"Here." Bei Bei did the same.
"Hey!" Reisijing glared at Lin Lei and Bei Bei, visibly upset. "Lin Lei, Bei Bei, what is this? Hmph, if you're going to be this insufferably polite about it, we might as well dissolve the party right now. You two go your way, and Lei Hong and I will go ours. Clearly you don't consider me a friend or brother. As for this vial of Highgod power — I, Reisijing, have never taken back a gift once given. If you don't want it, just throw it away!"
Lin Lei felt helpless but said nothing.
"Haha, Boss, Reisijing isn't that kind of petty person." Bei Bei grinned as he slung an arm around Reisijing's shoulder. "Just take it." Bei Bei had actually been reluctant to give it up in the first place — he had only offered because he saw Lin Lei doing it.
"You heard him!" Reisijing raised his eyebrows triumphantly. "Either throw away the Highgod power and go on your own, while the three of us stay together — or just take it."
Lin Lei wasn't usually the type to be overly sentimental, but this vial of Highgod power was simply too valuable, and he hadn't been able to accept it at first. Now, with Reisijing putting it that way, what else could he do? He could only flip his hand and store the vial of Highgod power directly into his spatial ring.
"Now that's more like it!" Reisijing beamed. "Honestly, if this were earlier — right after I'd become a Highgod, before I'd fused many profundities in my Laws — you couldn't have gotten me to be generous no matter what."
"Hm? What do you mean?" Bei Bei asked.
Lin Lei stood nearby, smiling as he listened. Bei Bei and Reisijing, standing side by side, both looked like young boys with equally mischievous eyes — they could have passed for brothers.
The four of them continued walking as they talked.
"According to my mother, it's about tempering me!" Reisijing said with a laugh. "Giving me large amounts of Highgod power before I've reached a certain level of strength would only make me complacent — unable to feel any sense of crisis. That makes breakthroughs harder. So once I'd fused all five profundities, Mother stopped placing any restrictions on my Highgod power."
Lin Lei nodded slightly.
Without a sense of crisis, improvement was difficult. Lin Lei completely understood why the Amethyst Highgod had done it that way.
"Oh... you have so much Highgod power. Boss's Four Divine Beast Families can hardly spare even a single drop." Bei Bei sighed.
Reisijing burst out laughing. "The Four Divine Beast Families? How can they compare to me? That enormous clan numbers in the millions, originally spread across multiple planes. The four Highgods did bestow vast amounts of Highgod power upon them. But did the families know how to cherish it? They did not! Those four patriarchs probably never imagined their four Highgods would die. They had been consuming Highgod power without restraint, and then suddenly — all four Highgods died! They were utterly dumbfounded."
"With the four Highgods dead, they no longer had a source of Highgod power. Obtaining more would be extremely difficult. Naturally, they had to conserve — one drop at a time."